Italy, and other poems

Contents

PAGE

ITALY 1

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 189

Canto The First

Wanderer ! who lov'st the pathless solitude, Where, in wild grandeur, Nature dwells alone On the bleak mountain, and th' unsculptur'd stone, 'Mid torrents, and dark range of forests rude ; Go, where, coeval with the birth of Time, Wild woods that crest the rocky ridge sublime Wave in the tempest's sweep: Or on the Cordillera's icy brow View, from a thousand rent volcanos, flow The fire-floods blazing up from central night : Or under shadow of the cataract, With deep and dread delight,

Stand where Niagara's flood wears down the mountain tract.

ROME.

Such scenes in all their wild magnificence Alone hold commune with the awe-struck eye : Year after year rolls by,

Like wave on wave o'er trackless oceans vast : And as the ages die and recommence, They blend not with the memory of the past. Time strikes but one one moment, o'er and o'er : The same same image palls th' o'erwearied sense : The wonder awes no more.

Ask of the savage and his solitude The history and the record of the past : The answer, audible on every blast, By day, by night renew'd: A howling of the wastes, the wilds, the woods, A melancholy roar of unfrequented floods.

Mine be the haunt where Earth's crown'd city rose ;

The solitude, where every echo brings

The voice of nations : where the teeming earth

Recalls her generations into birth:

Where every stone beneath the foot-step rings

Of glory, and its track records the car

That bore the victor 'mid the spoils of war :

There print my foot in dust, all animate

With an undying spirit, dust, where Fame

Gives to the lifeless, life, and man th' immortal name —

ROME. 1

Oh, thou enchanting scene!

Where Truth and Fancy at one fountain head Fill the o'erflowing urn! — Where all that lured From summer rills, or vernal meadows green, My boyhood, and, in after time, matur'd The spirit of the man to manly thought, At once, in one embodied vision wrought, Before me rose. — I stood where Brutus stood, And sternly rising to his arduous task, Flung from his brow feign'd Laughter's idiot mask. The plain before me lay, Where Cincinnatus on the unfurrow'd field Thrice laid his laurell'd shield. I trod on sacred ground, Where Freedom, bending o'er her altar, saw The second Brutus rising from the wound, That at the base of Pompey's statue laid Csesar beneath his blade.

I went where Victory either Scipio crown'd : Where Cato's foot its vestige had imprest : And Regulus onward stept, nor deign'd to cast On suppliant Rome his view, But, led by death, triumphantly withdrew. I glow'd where senates caught the living fire From Tully's lip, that, like the lightning flame, Fell on mute gilt, and crush'd the traitor's crest:

8 ROME,

And where a Virgil swept th' heroic lyre, And blending with his own a nation's fame, Gave Rome " th' eternal name,"

The goddess of a world's idolatry, In mailed grandeur tower'd my sight before : And they, her sons, who rest not with the dead, They gather'd to her rising ; they, of yore The mighty: — all, whoe'er, age after age, Hero, and bard, and sage, All who built up her immortality, Burst their sepulchral bed ; And round her beam'd the godlike glow, Light, that yet leads the world — the glory round her brow.

Fall then, as may, her ruins! vanish all! Let Time from his o'ershadowing pennons throw The dust of ages on the sev'n-hill'd brow, And round the wreck of Nero's golden hall The fox, that haunts the desert, daily prowl, And echo answer the night-shrieking owl; In Livia's bath, beneath the painted roof, Let swoln bats cling aloof; And arcs of triumph moulder into dust, Where hissing serpents twine round Caesar's broken bust:

ROME. 9

Yea, let her temple perish, and her dome, Worthiest of God, and wonder of the world, Sink, into atoms hurl'd ; Nor stone be left on stone to tell its birth : Yet temple, tow'r, and column are not Rome : They laid not the foundation of her fame ; No adamantine wall built up her mighty name : But virtues, that exalted human-kind ; But firm resolve, that gloriously achieved The bold emprise by boundless hope conceived ; But courage, casting fate and fear behind ; And wisdom, whose irrevocable word Subdu'd the awe-struck soul ere valour girt the sword.

Thus Rome, from realm to realm, spread out her

reign ; And still on her colossal wrecks imprest, On all, in rival grandeur manifest, The traces of an earthly god remain. Lo! how her Coliseums mountain crest Sublimely tow'rs, and lone, 'mid Rome's wide waste, Dwells in its strength! — Trace o'er yon measureless

plain Arches on arches, range by range extending, That with the Latian hills' blue distance blending,

10 ROME.

Fade slow from sight, and on their marble brow

The burden of collected rivers bear;

Grey aqueducts, that drink in lands remote

Pure waters at their source, and free the waves,

In torrent floods, that from the realm of air

Rome's summer pavement float,

Gushing perpetual forth as from their native caves.

Go, where the patriot chief, the old, the blind, O'er marsh, o'er mount, bare rock, or wooded hill, All that oppos'd his will, Bow'd Nature to the yoking of his mind: And on her patient strength the causeway laid, For Time's eternal footstep made —

Ascend the Palatine : O'er wreck of wrecks, 'mid labyrinths of decay Wind thy laborious way.

There in Augustus' roofless hall recline ; And, where the Caesars in their mortal day, Amid adoring Rome,

Vouchsafed to dwell, and in an earthly home Assum'd with Jove supreme divided sway: While conquer'd nations, gathering from afar, Led on beneath their light, Flow'd, worshipping, and hail'd the Julian star, Behold the unimaginable sight.

ROME. 11

All, all is desolate; lo! all around, Death, and the funeral mound : And all beneath, throughout the Sacred Way A dreary waste, and wrecks on either side, That solitude from solitude divide.

Not mournfuller that region, when of yore Stern bending o'er yon height's o'erhanging head, Nero, at midnight's outrag'd hour, Mad with impunity of pow'r, From banquets where the Furies fed, And masked bacchanals stagger'd round Nymphs with zones unbound,

Watch'd the wide-blazing wreck his torch had spread, And as the conflagration onward came, And fiercer glow'd the firmament of fire Crimsoning his golden lyre, Harp'd Ilium's fall o'er Rome in flame.

Yet, underneath the mount, whereon I lay, While with tir'd foot the pilgrim wander'd lone In the drear silence of the Sacred Way, 'Mid wastes with weeds o'ergrown; Onward, methought, I saw far nations flow, As to their central home ; And the wide desert, fluctuating, glow

U ROME.

With restless multitudes ; and one the voice

That rose from all: that voice, the shout of Rome.

Methought, before me past, in mournful weeds,

Kings, uncrown'd kings, whose link'd captivity

Made proud the Roman eye :

And ivory images aloft display'd

Of conquer'd realms ; and laurell'd chiefs array'd

With victory: and in robes of snowy fold,

Priests, and their victims, that Clitumnas fed,

Jove's milk-white bullocks of gigantic mould :

And battle-breathing steeds,

Their manes in wild luxuriance floating o'er :

Pards, and the brindled forms that Libya breeds :

The war-neigh mingling with the lion roar.

Here elephants, that spoils of nations bore,

'Mid clouds of dust that darkness round them roll'd,

Wreath' d up the column of their trunks on high,

In search of purer sky :

There, chariots, charged with Victory, moving on

In order, under eagles, wrought in gold,

Swell'd the slow triumph; while thro' either arch,

Where burnt the battle on the breathing stone,

Aurelian wound his march.

Four milk-white coursers bore the god along,

Timing their measur'd paces to consent

Of clarions, and each loud-voic'd instrument,

ROME. 13

And choral thunder of the Paean song.

His trophied car, labouring along the way,

Like a war-laden vessel that divides

The rolling of the tides,

Sever'd the myriads floating round th' array.

And where a slave bore up, with oustretch'd hands,

Her fetters' galling bands,

Slow, with majestic pace, the Palmyrene,

Bright in her beauty, radiant from afar,

In blaze of jewels seen,

The conqueror of the East, the Syrian queen,

Thro' shouting Rome led on Aurelian's car,

Grac'd the triumphal pomp, and glorified the war.

Ye ! on whose sires of old the galling yoke Lay heavy! ye, on Danube's blood-stain'd soil, Where Victory pil'd Rome's trophy'd spoil: Or where dark Nile her swarthy myriads fed : Or where, 'mid gliding Euphrats' golden meads, Sprang the couch'd lion from th' o'ershadowing reeds ; Or Tygris, like an arrow sped, Severing the green isle from the sandy main : Or where, athwart the Parthian plain, The archer, flying, shower'd behind Shafts that outstript the wind: Or where the Briton turn'd with hunter spear

14 ROME.

The legion's mail'd career ;

Ere yet before Rome's present god

The Cambrian monarch calmly trod,

And sternly grasp'd his lion chain :

Stern, as when conqueror in his scythed car

He mow'd the ranks, and strow'd on Britain's plain

Rome's iron field of war,

And still'd her rout beneath the roaring main :

Calm, as when peaceful on the ocean's side,

At eve's slow turn of flood,

He leant upon his buckler's shaggy hide,

And saw the surge along the sea-line foam,

Heave back the golden shield, and eagle helm of

Rome.

Come ye! on whose bow'd strength the iron yoke Heavily weighed, stand on her wreck, and say, " Was it the arm of man that dealt the blow " Which laid the mighty low?

" Or past the angel of the Lord on way, " And pour'd o'er yon wide wastes outstretch'd below " The vial of his wrath: — the vengeance, and the

woe?"

Stand on her wreck, and say, " Art thou that Rome of whom our fathers spoke, " The terrible, the thunder-bolt of war:

ROME. 15

11 The sound of whose mail'd footstep from afar

" Their gather'd battle broke?

" Sleep in thy sloth, on Tyber's level shore,

" Beneath th' abandoned hills, thy ancient reign!

" Thou, golden eagle, sleep ! ne'er drunk with gore

" Thy beak shall banquet on the battle-plain:

" The war trump shall disturb thy dream no more.

" No more the giant, renovate from rest,

" Shall, scornful of his lair,

" From slumber, from a thousand years' repose,

" Start into strength ; and while around him flows

" The dark profusion of his unshorn hair,

" Strike with the lightning lance that fires the air

" The gather'd dust of ages from the shield

" That turned to flight the field." —

At God's appointed day, The conquerors, and their armies, that unfurl'd The banner, whose overshadowing dim'd the world, Come forth, and move in might, and pass away: Whether his angel scatter their array; Or pestilence, or famine waste the globe : Or ere the wonted hour, when ice-storms meet, Wing'd at his word,

The soft snow loosing her ethereal robe, O'er buried armies spread one winding sheet.

16 ROME.

At God's appointed day,

They, and the world's thron'd empires, one by one,

Pass off— the work of woe — their ministration done.

But Time, that sweeps their refuse wrecks away

To Nature and her elements, again

Restores their ancient reign.

Still, as of old, ere Tyre her merchant crown'd,

The tempests, as they lash the billows, spread

The salt foam on her rock's uncovered head :

Thro' solitude, that once was Babylon,

Euphrates in its fullness rushes on ;

And still the turbid maze

Of Tyber, labouring down the Latian plain,

Thro' Rome's wide wastes and silent Ostia strays,

Discolouring, as erst, the bright cerulian main.

I heard the echo from yon hills around Bring back their earliest sound, The free wind wandering round the mountain brow ; And where man's many-voiced lip was mute, The inarticulate brute,

The lowings of the wild and wandering herd Burst, where the world and Rome once hung on Tully's word. —

I saw the ages backward roll'd, The scenes long-past restore :

ROME. 17

Scenes that Evander bad his guest behold, When first the Trojan stept on Tyber's shore — The shepherds in the Forum pen their fold ; And the wild herdsman, on his untamed steed, Goads with prone spear the heifer's foaming speed, Where Rome, in second infancy, once more Sleeps in her cradle. — But — in that drear waste, In that rude desert, when the wild goat sprung From cliff to cliff, and the Tarpeian rock Lour'd o'er the untended flock, And eagles on its crest their aery hung : And when fierce gales bow'd the high pines, when

blaz'd The lightning, and the savage in the storm Some unknown godhead heard, and, awe-struck,

gaz'd On Jove's imagin'd form : — And in that desert, when swoln Tyber's wave Went forth the Twins to save, Their reedy cradle floating on his flood : While yet the infants on the she-wolf clung, While yet they fearless play'd her brow beneath, And mingled with their food The spirit of her blood, As o'er them seen to breathe

18 ROME.

With fond reverted neck she hung,

And lick'd in turn each babe, and formed with

fostering tongue: And when the founder of imperial Rome Fix'd on the robber hill, from earth aloof, His predatory home,

And hung in triumph round his straw-thatcht roof The wolf-skin, and huge boar tusks, and the pride Of branching antlers wide : And towYd in giant strength, and sent afar His voice, that on the mountain echoes roll'd, Stern preluding the war :

And when the shepherds left their peaceful fold, And from the wild-wood lair, and rocky den, Round their bold chieftain rush'd strange forms of

barbarous men : Then might be seen by the presageful eye The vision of a rising realm unfold, And temples roof 'd with gold.

And in the gloom of that remorseless time, When Rome the Sabine seiz'd, might be foreseen In the first triumph of successful crime, The shadowy arm of one of giant birth Forging a chain for earth :

And, tho' slow ages roll'd their course between, The form as of a Caesar when he led

ROME. 19

His war-worn legions on,

Troubling the pastoral stream of peaceful Rubicon.

Such might o'er clay-built Rome have been foretold By word of human wisdom. But — what word, Save from thy lip, Jehovah's prophet! heard, When Rome was marble, and her, temples gold, And the globe Caesar's foot-stool, who when Rome View'd the incommunicable name divine Link a Faustina to an Antonine On their polluted temple ; who but thou, The prophet of the Lord ! what word, save thine, Rome's utter desolation had denounc'd? Yet, ere that destin'd time, The love-lute, and the viol, song, and mirth, Ring from her palace roofs. — Hear'st thou not yet, Metropolis of earth !

A voice borne back on every passing wind, Wherever man has birth, One voice, as from the lip of human-kind, The echo of thy fame ? — Flow they not yet, As flow'd of yore, down each successive age, The chosen of the world, on pilgrimage, To commune with thy wrecks, and works sublime, Where genius dwells enthron'd? — Ere yet the time c2

20 ROME.

When the seven hills their glory shall forget, Fair on thy splendour laughs the azure clime, And sun-beams dart from dome to dome their light. Stranger ! come forth ; and on the o'erhanging

height, Hills, with gay groves and marble villas crown'd, That compass her around, Behold how Rome asserts her ancient claim, And sole, 'mid earth's crown'd realms, assumes th*

" eternal name."

ROME.

Canto The Second. Conte Nts

A general view of Rome from the Convent of St. Onofrio. — The Pantheon — St. Peter's — The Pyramid of Caius Cestius — The Coliseum.

ROME, 23

CANTO THE SECOND. Whence ? from what station shall the eye command

The glorious scenery ? — Shall thy garden brow,

Fair Pincian ! fix our stand 1

Where, oft the dawn, day after day, has seen

My lone foot winding its delightful way

Thro' fragrance, and gay flow'rs, and arbors green :

And oft, when noon-tide's fiery ray

Intensely glar'd, where the dark ilex cast

O'er thy fresh fount the coolness of its shade,

Beneath its gloom I past :

Regardless not that in thy fav'rite haunt

Under that ilex shade,

While the fresh fount perpetual music made,

From the surrounding scene a Poussin drew

His rich and mellow hue :

And Claude there taught his pencil how to trace

The soft aerial grace,

24 ROME.

That sooth'd the westering sun, whose orb of light,

Like molten gold, on the proud temple shone :

And when the cooler hour came on,

Stole the chaste tint from the meek brow of eve,

That gliding into night,

There turn'd a last, and loveliest gleam to leave.

But — nor thy brow, fair Pincian ! nor thy fount, Soft-murmuring on the mount ; Nor where Corsini's terrace lifts its height, Severing the scene: no, nor thy green alcoves, Mellini, and gay bow'rs, and golden groves, Now fix my step — I seek a lovelier site, A sacred spot, where a gigantic oak Spreads its luxuriant boughs, by Time unbroke. That tree is hallow'd. — Bears it not his name, Who unto Salem's scenes, her pastoral plain, Her olive-shaded mount, Bleak Horeb, and pure Siloa's silver fount, Gave . . . if aught less than voice of prophet strain Could give . . . undying fame? — 'Tis Tasso's oak. — 'Twas there, at life's last close, By years, yet more by woe than years, opprest, The pilgrim of Onofrio came to rest. What tho', awhile a sojourner, remov'd From nature, under gilded roofs, in courts Where Luxury resorts,

ROME. 25

With princes, and proud ladies, passing fair,

The bard had dwelt : his spirit ever lov'd

The breathing of the fresh and fragrant air,

And all that nature in her wild abode

Spreads o'er free solitudes with song of bird,

Or music sweeter heard,

That with the flowing of the water flow'd :

These, that had charmed Sorrento's child, would

yield To age a child's enjoyment. — Here — his home — His haunt th' o'ershadowing oak. — Before him towVd Th' expectant Capitol, whose laurel wreath Serv'd but to mock th' unconscious brow beneath The hand of envious Death. — Below him, Rome Spread out her pomp : he heeded not. — Above, The sun, in brightness of the blaze of noon, Flam'd forth : he heeded not : — but when the moon Stole out, and sweeter breathed the orange grove : While all in heaven, wherein her orb was seen, Seem'd, like her light, serene ; And all on earth, whereon her mildness lay, Calm as her soothing ray, Then would her votary to that oak repair : And when he felt the fresh and fragrant breeze Fan his wan cheek, lifting his silver hair, It seem'd to him, that with the moon on way

26 ROME.

An angel ever went,

To the world- wearied man in mercy sent : And he would kneel, and hail a spirit there, Who, looking on his misery, bade it cease : While the low voice of one, whose soul was peace, Past from his lip in pray'r.

Queen of the Nations ! . . . hail ! How beautiful from Latium's level plain Th' Eternal City seems aloft to soar! Palace, and tow'r, and fane, And swelling domes, and votive columns rise. The crest that proudly bore up Antonine Lifts its colossal size :

And imag'd wars, that Trajan's shaft entwine, Sculpture his triumph on the dark blue skies. There, Tyber flows, and rolling on its flood By turbid torrents fed, Restlessly labours down his yellow bed, 'Mid palaces, and wrecks and solitude. Here, obelisks, th' ^Egyptian's ancient pride, Whose shadows, journeying with the sun, beheld How Nile beneath their brow his deluge swell'd; Then slowly wafted burden'd ocean o'er, Rested at Rome's command, and tow'r'd on Tyber's shore.

ROME. 27

View'st thou yon granite columns, on whose crest

Corinthian grace and grandeur rest?

There, radiant, 'mid the wrecks of time,

In beauty, chaste — simplicity, sublime —

Stands the Pantheon: and uplifts above

The tempest, and the range of earthly storm,

The dome that held the synod of high Jove :

And opening its proud summit on the sky,

Gave to the worshipper no meaner form

To mingle with his bright idolatry,

Than heaven, and its resplendent imag'ry ;

The sun a god by day, the moon by night,

The wandering planet, and the fixed star

That darts its beam from far,

Or comet in wide course trailing its lurid light.

But far above its soaring amplitude Behold another dome,

In the blue element with sun-shine blended. — Another and the same, o'er awe-struck Rome, Amid the solitude of space suspended, Crowns the sublimest fane by mortal trod, And swells the choral hymn that lauds the living God.—

Sublimest Temple of the living God! Shall I no more the thrilling transport feel

28 ROME.

That o'er me came, when, ere thy court I trod,

I saw, far off, a crown of braided light

Purple thy cross? that purple light, which eve

Seem'd like a glory round thy dome to weave,

When in the peaceful hour, half day, half night,

Th' aerial wonder first entranc'd my view,

And more than mortal power my spirit onward drew.

The sun had through a gorgeous canopy Of gold, of purple, and of azure sheen, Wheel'd his broad orb, and set with glow serene ; And all was stillness to the ear and eye: The labours of the day began to cease, And all without was calm, and all within was peace ; But deep the glow and tumult in my heart, When on th' eternal flint my footstep rung : Thought, fancy, feeling, to one object clung; Nor joy, nor woe, there claim'd divided part. On, to the temple ; on, I sped my way, Reckless that Tyber's flood athwart my passage lay. I saw no flood, no court, no pillar'd zone That girt it round: I heard no fountain play; With guideless foot, as sunk the dying day, I sped impatient on ;

And stood beneath the dome, at fall of night, What time a priest, dim seen, slow pac'd with lonely light.

ROME. 29

Else, all was darkness ; all mysterious gloom : Save where, bright flaming round the altar, rose The silver lamps, that day nor night repose, And here and there the baldachin illume, Where the colossal column's brazen frame Catches on wreathed spires by fits the gliding flame. And, save those lamps, and that departing light, Darkness above, beneath me, and around : No marble glitter'd thro' the gloom profound; Tomb, statue, column, none disturb'd the sight: The spirit of devotion fill'd the whole, And sealing up the lip, held commune with the soul.

Dome! worthiest of the God! if worthy aught By human genius wrought : If worthy aught, save the invisible shrine, The temple of the heart, in whose pure cell, Illumin'd by thy presence, Spirit divine ! High thoughts celestial dwell.

Dome ! worthiest of the God ! shall I no more In silence there adore 1

No more with breath suspended, bow to hear A voice, as of a note of angel song, In single sweetness stealing on the ear? Or that rich stream, which swelling as it roll'd

30 ROM E.

The echoing aisles around,

Shook the responsive dome with measur'd sound?

Or, when the day begins to dim,

Hear from a chord that vibrates in the heart,

The peaceful echo of the vesper hymn ;

And feel, the while its last low cadence closes,

How with the dying day the soothed soul reposes?

Shall I no more, unseen, When, like the rest of death, sleep lies on Rome, Woo Night's cool breath, th' aerial founts between? And when with iron mace on tow'r and dome, Time strikes with thousand hands the midnight bell, Rousing the pale monk from his sleepless cell, There view the moon wheel her bright orb serene, And all her glory spread o'er that unrivall'd scene ?

Oh, thou, fair Moon! whose soft and silver light Beams like a milder day, Shall I ne'er view again, thou Sun of Night! Beneath thy beauteous ray, The temple and the tow ring of its dome, Drawn up, me thought, by thy celestial might: As if, on earth, as on the moving main, Sov'reign alike o'er both, thou heldst unrivaU'd reign ?

ROME. 31

They seem'd to soar ; while in thy light array'd, That fill'd with splendour all the court around, The crescents of the stately colonnade, Range within range, by triple pillars crown'd, Shone, as thy beams, round each successive row, That softly swell' d, or sank away from sight, In ceaseless gleam of undulating flow, Here boldly seen, there furtively betray 'd, Shade chasing light, and light pursuing shade, Glided like summer waves, when winds forget to

blow.

And all the while, rainbows in rainbows wreath'd Their colours, borrow'd of the lunar beams Around the rival fountain's pillar'd streams. They rose and fell : and in their rise and fall Show Yd light and music on the eye and ear : Like playful spirits of the northern sphere, Waving the banners that lost day recall, And as they quiver in their native sky, Breathe a soft voice of flame and melody.

Thou, that amid Aurelian's war-fenc'd bound Haughtily tow'r'st, making thyself a part Of Rome's proud guardianship — unlike thou art To all, far off or nigh, that rise around, Palace, or dome, or castle-turret crown'd,

32 ROME.

Or triumph arch — Cestian! I know thee now: Thy crest, that tapering from its base, spires up, Edg'd like a warrior's lance. — But — why that brow Rais'd as in scorn? — Is it, that thou alone, Pre-eminent above the vale of death, Thy crest alone, that the low sun illumes, Lengthens its pointed shade o'er those beneath In darkness mouldering : o'er the strangers' tombs, The unhallow'd graves ? — Yet not in thee lies hid, Not in thy cell, deceitful Pyramid ! Rests the committed urn — thou, to thy trust, Like those that in the ^Egyptian's sea of sand Have op'd their chambers, thou, alike unjust, Hast to the spoiler's desecrating hand Loos'd the sepulchral dust.

Ah ! will they rest The strangers in the sanctuary of the dead : They, whose last sleep is in a foreign bed : Whose sepulchre unblest Invites the scoffer's tread?

Enough, stern Rome ! their grave is delv'd in earth That smil'd not on their birth: That they in death stretch'd out a restless hand In vain ... for that far land : That when beneath his dart the sufferers lay, No kindred soothing stole a pang away:

ROME. 33

Enough, that on the darkness of their bier

Fell not a kindred tear :

Enough, the taunt that round their hurry'd hearse

The blessing turn'd to curse.

We ask not, Rome! thy priest, nor bell to toll

Peace to the passing soul.

The spirit to the Lord of life is fled,

Reposing on th' atonement of its God.

Yield what our nature claims, earth's covering bed,

Where dust with dust may rest beneath the sod.

Hallow in Death's abode the sabbath of the dead! —

Th' enormous Coliseum's bulk behold : — Like some lone promontory's storm-rent brow, That spreads its shadow o'er the deep below, And back repels the waves in tempests roll'd : A lonely island in the sea of time ; On whose deep-rooted base Ages on ages in their ceaseless race Strike, and break off, and pass in idle foam, Forgotten: thus, amid the wrecks of Rome, The Coliseum lifts its brow sublime ; And, looking down on all that moves below, O'er all the restless range, Where war and violence have work'd their change,

U ROM E.

Tow'rs motionless, and wide around it throws

The shadow of its strength, — its own sublime repose.

Amid the deep arcades, and winding cells, Eternal silence dwells :

Save when' tempestuous whirlwinds, as they sweep Thro' chasms yawning wide, huge fragments throw From the rock crest, as from a mountain brow : Or, mingling with the murmur of the air, O'er altars, where of yore a shaft of fire Rose from the martyr's pyre, The solitary pilgrim breathes a pray'r ; Or grey-stol'd brethren, at the stated time, In slow procession float, and chant the deep-ton d rhyme.

Not deeper felt that silence, that suspense Of being, that here lay on all around, When agony of pleasure chain'd each sense, In willing horror bound ;

While swarm o'er swarm the gather'd nation hung : And where round circles widening circles spread, And arch out-soaring arch Bath'd in the sunbeams its ambitious head, Watch'd, as the dying gladiator leant On his sustaining arm, and o'er the wound,

ROME. 35

Whence the large life-drops struggled, lowly bent,

And calmly looked on earth,

As one who gradual sinks in still repose,

His eye in death to close

On the familiar spot that view'd his blissful birth.

Unlike the actor on the theatre, Who feigns the wound unfelt, that Roman dy'd : He too an actor : and, when death drew nigh, By Rome's tremendous silence glorify'd, Firmly sustain d his part.

No sound, no gesture, e'er to ear or eye Betray'd the sufferance of the pang severe, The hand that grasp'd his heart, Save the low pant that mark'd his lessening breath, And one last deep-drawn groan — the agony of death. Shout, then, and bursting rapture, and the roar Of myriads — then commingling life-streams ran, And Rome inebriate drank the blood of man, And swell'd the human hecatomb with gore Of birds, and beasts., and monsters of the main ; While death pil'd up the pyre — the slayers on the slain.